Sound Check: Getting misty over a look back with ‘80s Nuts Newsletter

Friday, April 9, 1999 | 11:42 a.m.

I grew up during the 1980s. Those of you who have been there know what that means: They never leave you. Witness the continuing influence of the decade on my person: I can't touch hair spray or mousse, the word "gnarly" escapes my lips from time to time, and occasionally I wonder what happened to Phoebe Cates, the little Brat Packer that couldn't. And, of course, there was the music -- sentimental favorites such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Simple Minds, whose work I follow even when it turns, well, ugly.

Marten Hennessy understands this. The affable 27-year-old runs the '80s Nuts Newsletter (you can subscribe at 80snuts.com), a weekly report dedicated to every musical act that made its name during the Reagan era. Every week the MGM Grand employee and mobile DJ (DJ OD's 80's Buffet, at your service) compiles news, rumors and concert listings from dozens of sources -- from band websites to reader tips -- into an entertaining digest that answers the question, "Did I dream up that guy with the hair?"

"It's a learning experience for me," Hennessy says. "Like when I heard about the J. Geils Band getting back together in USA Today -- when I found out about that reunion, I jumped. 'Centerfold' is one of my favorite songs of all time. I want to share stuff like that."

Hennessy started the newsletter just about a year ago, when he realized that many of the '80s bands he still liked -- Duran Duran, Howard Jones, Modern English, ad infinitum -- were receiving little or no coverage in the music press. And when they did get coverage, it was more often than not a tidbit of information, a footnote, or a smug "look who's come crawling back" appraisal. Hennessy felt they deserved better.

"There's a lot of people who still love this music, from the country music of the '80s, like Alabama, to the heavy metal of that time -- Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister.

"If you listen to radio today, you find that it's really segmented," Hennessy says. "There isn't a popular music station where you can hear Goo Goo Dolls, Boyz II Men, the new Mariah Carey and the new Tom Petty. The kind of stations that do all that are gone, but back in the '80s, you could actually hear Michael Jackson, Toto, Aretha Franklin and Van Halen on the same station. And it all fit. It was the time."

Like the popular radio Hennessy cherished, the newsletter celebrates diversity. Last week's edition gave equal play to stories about the Beastie Boys, Jermaine Jackson, David Sylvian, Run DMC, Madonna and U2. And circulation grows by leaps and bounds, almost exclusively by word of mouth.

And despite the fact that he still doesn't make a penny from the operation, he's still hooked.

"It's all out of a love for the music," he says, smiling. "And I'd be looking up this stuff anyway."

Stereo Dynamics

The Cocktail Nation may have died a quick, anonymous death the moment your significant other ordered his or her first chocolate martini, but that didn't keep Combustible Edison from releasing its best record to a publicity vacuum last winter. "The Invisible World" isn't merely good -- it's swanky. And I haven't used that adjective in more than two years, so you know I'm sincere.

The lounge-core quintet maintains its velvety, urbane edge -- the glockenspiels, the siren vocals, the Esquivel-styled space madness -- but adds enough samples and drum programming to re-create the wheel. "Laura's Aura" marries a subtle, low-end bass to a Martin Denny-esque romp. The chimes of "20th Century" seem to come from the Beyond; disembodied telephone chatter and synthesizer chirps float through the mix like party crashers. And "Utopia" lives up to its name -- a true sonic idyll, whose boundaries seem to push further out with each measure.

It's curious that Sub Pop didn't make more of a noise for "Impossible World"; with the band's forays into film music ("Four Rooms," "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas"), it has garnered more underground notice than many of the artists on their roster these past few years (the label of Nirvana -- oh, how the mighty fall.) At least they released the thing, and you should do yourself a favor and pick it up. It's always cocktail hour somewhere.

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